Report for the CeDAMar taxonomic exchange fellowship program

Research fellow: Katerina Sevastou, PhD

Affiliation: University of Crete, Department of Biology, P. O. Box 2208, Vassilika Vouton, 71409 Heraklion, Crete, Greece

Host Institute: DZMB, Senckenberg Institute

Dates of visit: 13/2/ - 12/3/ 2008

Title of project: Description of a new deep-sea harpacticoid species from the Mediterranean Sea 

The German Centre for Marine Biodiversity Research (DZMB) and the Hellenic Centre for Marine Rsearch (HCMR) have established a strong collaboration through European and national funded projects with the general aim to investigate the biodiversity of meiofauna in the Mediterranean Sea. Through this collaboration and towards the METEOR Levar Cruise, I had the opportunity to visit DZMB in 2005 in order to study deep-sea benthic copepods from the Mediterranean Sea. Under this project, several new species were discovered, among which a new species of the deep-sea genus Talpina (Copepoda, Harpacticoida). This species was chosen for taxonomic description based on a single female individual. However, on a later stage two more specimens of the new species, one male and one female that have been collected from the location where the new species was initially found came to our possession. Therefore, it was considered essential to complete the taxonomic description of the new species by including the description of the male specimen as well.

Towards this purpose, a one-month visit at DZMB was scheduled in order to (a) use the infrastructure and facilities of DZMB for producing the taxonomic drawings of the male specimen of the new species, (b) investigate whether the new species is wide spread in the Mediterranean Sea; that was achieved through the examination of samples collected during the METEOR Levar cruise (2006 – 2007), (c) produce a relevant taxonomic publication. The three fold goal of my visit was successfully attained and currently the manuscript “K. Sevastou P. H. Corgosinho, P. Martínez-Arbizu 2008. A new species of Talpina Dahms & Pottek, 1992 (Copepoda, Harpacticoida, Huntemanniidae) from the Western Mediterranean deep sea” is under revision by the co-authors.